ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women’s hockey team fell for the second straight day on home ice, 5-1 to College Hockey America leader Robert Morris University at the Gene Polisseni Center.
Robert Morris scored five unanswered goals in the win and improved to 9-1-4 overall and 5-0-1 in league play. With the loss, RIT fell to 1-13 overall and 0-4 in College Hockey America play.
Amanda Pantaleo scored a pair of goals to lead Robert Morris. Maeve Garvey, Jaycee Gebhard, and Rikki Meilleur also scored for the Colonials, while Jessica Dodds improved to 4-0-3 on the season with 23 saves.
Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) scored RIT’s lone goal, while Brooke Stoddart (Elmvale, Ontario/Elmvale) made 27 saves in the loss.
Robert Morris held a 32-24 edge in shots. Both teams were 1-for-7 on the power-play.
“We got the start we wanted, scoring first, but we stopped playing after the goal,” said Bruce B. Bates Women’s Hockey Coach Scott McDonald. “At this point, we need more players to step up and contribute.”
Despite RIT scoring first, Robert Morris would hold a 2-1 lead after one period of play.
Stoodart and the RIT defense would come up big early. Rennie would fire a shot that Stoddart stopped but was skidding towards the line before Christa Vuglar (Crystal Lake, IL/Chicago Mission) cleared it away. Moments later, Stoddart would make a great save on a tip attempt by Sarah Quaranta from in tight.
Just like last night, RIT would strike first on a power-play, as Cornine would finish off a nifty passing play in which all five Tigers on the ice touched the puck in succession. Reagan Rust (Southaven, MS/Moon Area) fed Claudia Black (Newmarket, Ontario/St. Maximilian Kobe) at the left point. Black fired a diagonal pass to Lindsay Stenason (Oakville, Ontario/Appleby College) at the right face-off circle, Stenason quickly went back across to Kathryn Kennedy (Hamilton, Ontario), who deflected the puck to Cornine, who was all alone in front. Cornine made no mistake in putting the puck past Dodds for her team best third goal of the season.
Robert Morris would strike back with 4:46 left in the period, as Garvey would intercept a clearing pass after a shot by Mikaela Lowater was blocked, slipping a low shot from the slot past Stoddart for her third goal of the season.
Pantaleo would deflect a pass from Gazzola on the rush less than two minutes later to give the Colonials their first lead of the afternoon.
Robert Morris would add to its lead in the second period, as Gebhard would score with 5:38 left off a feed from Brittany Howard on the power-play to make it a 3-1 lead.
RIT would receive three straight power-plays, including a 1:11 of a 5-on-3 early in the period, but could not convert. Dodds made a couple of big saves, including a glove stop on Taylor Baker (Toronto, Ontario/North Toronto Collegiate Institute).
The Colonials would tack on third period goals by Meilleur and Pantaleo to put the game away.
Robert Morris leads the all-time series between the two schools, 11-10-4. The two teams also meet on Feb. 10-11, 2017 at Robert Morris.
Last night, Howard and Rennie tallied three points apiece as Robert Morris defeated RIT, 4-3. Cornine had two assists, while Black and Taylor Baker (Toronto, Ontario/North Toronto Collegiate Institute) scored their first collegiate goals.
RIT is right in action next weekend, heading to College Hockey America for Lindenwood University for a pair of games. Friday’s game begins at 8 p.m., while Saturday’s contest starts at 4 p.m.
